Sleeping Beauty
by Alseides
Summary: A fairy tale in which Haldir is Sleeping Beauty.


Title: Sleeping Beauty  
  
Author: Tossblack  
  
Pairing: Haldir/Luthien and Haldir/Arwen because someone said there was a dearth of it. ;) It's pretty gen.  
  
Summary: A fairy tale in which Haldir is Sleeping Beauty.  
  
Other notes: This is what comes of reading too much medieval literature on courtly love. I'm playing with time a bit here; I'm pretty sure Haldir isn't as old as I make him out to be in this story. But it's much more fun this way. Many thanks to the Encyclopedia of Arda. Archived on haldir-lives.org as part of the Fiction Challenge  
  
***  
  
Once upon a time, there lived the most noble and beautiful elf in all the land. The Valar graced him truly, giving him gifts of worthiness and honor, so that he might shine as a light for elves. All who knew him loved him, for he was very kind and gracious as well as beautiful. His name was Haldir.  
  
Haldir lived in a luminous forest with the other elves, where he frolicked under the stars of Varda and gave thanks for his gifts, sharing in the delight of the young world with all. During the day, he danced gracefully and sang songs and made merry. All the creatures of the forest loved him. Whenever Haldir would go hunting, he made certain to obtain permission from Yavanna before slaying her creatures. He delighted in the chase, and was a good archer, stirring the hearts of all who beheld his fine form.  
  
One elfmaiden who lived in that land was Luthien, who was as gentle and sweet as any elf can be. She was called the nightingale, the singer at dusk. At dusk one day she saw Haldir hunting, and fell into a swoon at the sight. Truly, the beauty of Haldir overwhelmed her and brought her low, so that she could not speak for joy and blushed sixty times a day. Such was her delight in the beauty and strength of Haldir that she could not speak of it aloud, and so Haldir did not learn of the love that Luthien held for him, much to her chagrin.  
  
But not all creatures loved the most beautiful of elves. Melkor, who arises in might, was greatly disturbed and mischieved by the noble Haldir. The love that everyone held for Haldir turned Melkor's heart to blackness and made him burn in jealousy. Secretly he plotted how he might destroy the great favor Haldir held and send him into ignominy.  
  
It happened thus; one day Haldir set forth into the deeps of the forest in search of adventure, taking with him only his bow and his harp. After much weary wandering, he came upon a strange deer, crowned with golden antlers and clad in a snowy hide. Haldir raised his bow to slay the deer, but it alighted into the woods and he gave chase. For ten long days and nights, Haldir tracked the elusive beast, crossing shady knolls and forested vales and glens, always only just keeping in sight of it and stopping only to quench his thirst.  
  
Then the white hart led him into a thicket and vanished utterly from his sight. The good elf, bewildered, attempted to reclaim his trail, but the branches closed around him, thorns pricking him horribly. Haldir fell into such a swoon at their poisoned touch that no noise might wake him. He lay upon the ground, very still indeed. But he was not dead.  
  
Haldir slept thus in an enchanted sleep. Around him the thorny brambles grew up tall and wicked, their sharp spikes a warning to any would enter the thicket. The forest grew old and dense and Haldir was lost to the outside world and all who loved him.  
  
They searched the valleys and hills of the great forests for him, crying the name of the most beautiful elf in the world, but no creature could say where he had gone. Luthien was a piteous sight, frail with grief. No consolation could be given her, and she swore a thousand times a day never to love an elf again.  
  
Years passed, though, and Luthien fell in love with a mortal man and relinquished her immortality for love of him. Wars came and went; men and elves fought against the rising darkness, and cast it down, and together grew strong in the light of the sun. Darkness rose again and again against the realms of man and elf, and much blood was shed on the once-innocent earth. Haldir lay ever in his dark slumber, shrouded by thorns.  
  
One day, a young elven princess went riding through a dark wood, whose name was Arwen Undomiel: the star of evening that sings at dusk. None live who are more graceful than the Evenstar. The trees pressed close around her, menacing and weighted with old malevolence. She was not afraid, for the nightingales approached her, singing in delight of her presence. They guided her with their song until she came upon a thicket, deep within the forest. So it was that she alighted from her sturdy elfsteed Asfaloth and made her way into the brambles, passing untouched through the cruel barbs of ancient evil until she came to a clearing.  
  
In the center of the trees, an elf lay sleeping. His face was fair and his form was noble, though he lay in a slumber more peaceful than death. Arwen went to him, kneeling beside his still body, and wept at the sight of such a wondrous elflord brought low by long forgotten malice. Her tears ran like the waves of Ulmo upon the face of Haldir, and lo, he woke.  
  
Great was the joy of the elfmaid when she saw Haldir stir and move about like a living creature. Great, too, was the joy of Haldir upon beholding such a fair maiden. He marveled greatly at the tale she told him, of how she found him deep within the thorny brambles. Yet her tale continued, tracing the lineage of the ages, making mention of all who had shaken the roots of the world. She told him of Melkor and the stealing of the Silmarils, of the wars that had ravaged the world, of the love and death of Luthien, and of much more besides. In torrents Haldir wept, most piteously, at her words, for he had missed much of the world. He vowed to end the cruel trickery and foul malevolence that had brought him low. The elflord swore he would take a most righteous oath to guard the borders of elfland forever. He pleaded that Arwen join him and remain ever by his side, for his heart was given wholly over to her beauty.  
  
Yet Arwen declined him, gently, her own heart torn most endearingly with regret. For, she told him, her heart was meant for another, and she would keep it safe until the day that other appeared.  
  
Bitterly Haldir wept and begged of her to relent, but to no avail. They passed then out of the thicket and went unto their separate homes, each too full of sorrow to speak farewells. Haldir came then to the woodland kingdom of Lothlorien, where he entered into the service of that most graceful of elves, Galadriel.  
  
In time, Haldir proved himself again as a noble and true elf, a warrior with great prowess, and a singer of heart-rending ballads of woe. Yet ever his heart remained untouched but for Arwen's tears, trapped in brambles and lost to love. To this day, bards sing songs about the sad life of the most noble and beautiful elf in all the land, songs so heart-wrenching that the very rocks must cry.  
  
*The end* 


End file.
